Nintendo took a promising idea with Amiibos and its Amiibo Tap software for the Wii U and turned it into a weird insult.

Nintendo has really impressed me with its creativity. I didn't think it was possible to experience a completely new and unique disgust with free-to-play game tactics, but Nintendo pulled it off with amiibo tap: Nintendo's Greatest Bits (which I'll refer to as "Amiibo Tap" with proper capitalization for the rest of this review) on the Wii U. This pseudo-game isn't quite as grossly offensive as free-to-play games that use energy meters and special cash-only currency for progression (though Pokemon Shuffle has already proven that Nintendo can be a pro at doing that, too), but it's remarkably ugly in the face of the company's bizarre Amiibo NFC toy distribution.

Amiibo ProblemsAmiibos are Nintendo's take on Skylanders and Disney Infinity. They're small plastic figures of video game characters with near-field communication (NFC) chips in their bases. By tapping them to the NFC spot on the Nintendo Wii U gamepad or on the New Nintendo 3DS XL screen, you can unlock features in games. It's a logical progression for Nintendo, but it's proven to be a nightmare for collectors.

Many popular and obscure Amiibos have become incredibly rare, and impossible to find at their $12.99 retail price. You can expect to spend at least $60 for a Marth or Ike Amiibo, and the Animal Crossing Villager Amiibo has been seen at some stores for over $200. Nintendo has remained mostly silent on reissuing these Amiibos, and both the scarcity of the figures and the company's apparent refusal to address them has become a sore spot for many die-hard Nintendo fans. I personally have given up any hope of finding a Ness Amiibo, because the preorders for it sold out as soon as stores made them available online. It's not an issue if you want Mario or Pikachu, but the obscure characters are simply unavailable.

Amiibo support in games has been uneven, which is another concern for both collectors and Nintendo fans. You can store character data for Super Smash Bros. in Amiibos, and you can unlock costumes and items in games like Mario Kart 8 and The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Warriors, but there hasn't been a single unifying Amiibo game like Skylanders or Disney Infinity.

The StructureThis could have been where Amiibo Tap came in to save the day and make these figures as compelling to amass as they are frustrating to collect. That isn't the case, and instead of a genuinely fun advantage to having an Amiibo, Nintendo released a disgustingly cheap demo system that requires plastic figures that, at retail, cost about twice as much as the games they demonstrate.

Amiibo Tap is simple. Tap an Amiibo to the Wii U gamepad, and it will unlock a demo of a random classic Nintendo game, out of a selection of about a dozen. Each demo has between five and nine "scenes" (starting points in the game) you can flip through by tapping the Amiibo on the gamepad again. Each scene has a three-minute timer, after which you get kicked back to the Amiibo Tap opening screen.

Pay to PayAs a demo structure, it's perfectly fine. As content you unlock with a $13 figure, it's wrongheaded at best and outright miserly at worst. Again, these are demos that let you play for three-minute sessions at nine pre-selected points, and no more. They even give you the option to buy the full games through Nintendo's eShop with a constantly present on-screen button.

Here's the problem: each of these games are available for $6 (for NES) to 8 (for SNES) on the Nintendo eShop. They cost about half as much as the Amiibos you use to unlock their demos. Amiibo Tap doesn't give you content for you Amiibos, it gives you a sales pitch, and spending $13 to access a sales pitch for a $6 game is simply ridiculous.

These are games that Nintendo made decades ago, and while the eShop pricing is questionable it is reasonable for Nintendo to want to make money on its classic games. However, if you bought an Amiibo, you already spent much more than one of those games on a collectible built on the legacy those games created. Giving a collector and a Nintendo fan, or a kid and a Nintendo neophyte looking to appreciate the classics, a paltry demo for an inexpensive and already produced game in exchange for their $13 purchase is outright rent-seeking. Do you like Mario? Well, your $13 figure isn't enough for a game. Pay $6 more for Super Mario Bros., a game that's old enough to rent a car.

What Should Have BeenNintendo should have simply offered the full game for each Amiibo. You have Mario? Here's Super Mario Bros. You have Bowser? Here's Super Mario World. You have Yoshi? Here's Yoshi's Island. Nintendo already got more revenue on the figure you bought than it would have gotten on the old game, and outright offering a complete classic game as a bonus for your Amiibo would have sent even the common figures flying off shelves.

I first tested Amiibo Tap with the Mario Party 8 Mario Amiibo and the Super Smash Bros. Mega Man Amiibo. Mario unlocked a demo for Super Mario Bros, which let me play through a handful of levels in three-minute bursts. Mega Man, strangely, unlocked a demo for Super Mario World (which is not a Mega Man game). Again, I could jump to nine different spots in Super Mario World and play for three minutes. Strangely, the entire game seems to be present under the demo; when I beat Vanilla Secret 2 with time to spare, I could move on to the Reznor fort or go back to Vanilla Secret 1, which was before the point the demo started me.

I confirmed that the games are random by scanning my Super Smash Bros. Mario Amiibo (Metroid demo), Super Smash Bros. Samus Aran Amiibo (Legend of Zelda demo), and Super Smash Bros. Link Amiibo (Super Metroid demo). So you can't even be certain you'll get the demo you want from the Amiibo you bought.

Tapped OutIf Nintendo was unwilling to offer classic games as a bonus to buying Amiibos, Amiibo Tap should have simply been cancelled. As it is, this strange free-to-play, pay-for-demo system that answers your purchase with a sales pitch to buy something else is just an insult. I've seen more offensive free-to-play systems before, but this non-game could be the most bizarrely wrongheaded.

About the Author

Will Greenwald has been covering consumer technology for a decade, and has served on the editorial staffs of CNET.com, Sound & Vision, and Maximum PC. His work and analysis has been seen in GamePro, Tested.com, Geek.com, and several other publications. He currently covers consumer electronics in the PC Labs as the in-house home entertainment expert... See Full Bio

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